The House of Dead Maids by Clare B. Dunkle was meant to be a throw-away book... what I mean by that was it was meant to be a book to get my mind off the Stieg Larsson books... something to cleanse the palette, as it were. I wanted something short, spooky, and out of my pile. I thought this would suffice.It was short.. it was spooky, but not enough to keep my attention. I blame Stieg Larsson.It was a neat premise, a prequel retelling of Heathcliff's past... that would be the Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights infamy. This dispels part of the mysterious past of Heathcliff's youth, a part of his life that most Bronte fans may or may not want to know. The writing is gothic and moody, chock full of many $2 words like eldritch and churlish and virulent. However, it didn't do the trick. I did not finish it, I wanted to, but I ran out of attention span. Much to my dismay.Overall, 2 out of 5 stars. I wanted it to be better than it was.- review courtesy of www.bibliopunkk.net